Christ Has Risen

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him....

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.(John 20)

As Easter dawned on this day, 2020, there was very little pomp and circumstances filling the churches around the world. 

I am imagining that it was very much the same on the first Easter morning when Mary went to the tomb and found it empty.  

I imagine that there was sadness, fear and many questions; when the angels told them that Jesus was not there.  That he had risen.

And then Mary turning to see Jesus standing there. 

Imagine you standing in Mary's place.

It was just a real moment between Mary and her LORD when she realized he had indeed risen from the dead.

I imagine what it was like in that garden that morning before everybody knew what had occurred. 

I imagine it was very quiet

No trumpets, no shout of Hallelujahs, no big celebration or sings lovely hymns.   

Just an amazing moment of truth shared between two people.

A real moment, tender and precious.  

No history that could add unnecessary truth to it. 

Just Jesus coming alive meeting Mary in the garden with only the angels as witnesses.

Thats all.

That one moment of truth left many with questions and doubts.  

When she went back to tell the disciples that she had seen Jesus, and what he told her, they didn’t believe her. 

A most typically reaction.

However no matter the doubts, the questions, the fears the truth remains.  

Christ had Risen, He had risen indeed.

Were You There When They Crucified My LORD?

I am thinking of two passage this morning.  The first one is the first reading for Good Friday Isaiah 52:13-53:12.  

The other is from the second reading on Passion Sunday Philippians 2:5-11 — That I wrote on in one of my last blogs.

First let me comment, again, on the second of the two, Philippians 2: 6-8

⁶ who, though he was in the form of God,

   did not regard equality with God

   as something to be exploited, 

⁷ but emptied himself,

   taking the form of a slave,

   being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, 

⁸   he humbled himself

   and became obedient to the point of death—

   even death on a cross.

Very, very simply put:

God Almighty, the Creator of all that is — ⁸ humbled himself.

The Divine Power and Glory became “a slave.”

Now read, from the Good Friday text, how this God/man was predicted to be observed and treated  — and indeed was observed  and treated — by those who lived around him:

Who has believed what we have heard?

   And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 

² For he grew up before him like a young plant,

   and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 

³ He was despised and rejected by others;

   a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces

   he was despised, and we held him of no account. 

⁴ Surely he has borne our infirmities

   and carried our diseases;

yet we accounted him stricken,

   struck down by God, and afflicted. 

⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions,

   crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that made us whole,

   and by his bruises we are healed. 

⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;

   we have all turned to our own way,

and the Lord has laid on him

   the iniquity of us all. 

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

   yet he did not open his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

   and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

   so he did not open his mouth. 

⁸ By a perversion of justice he was taken away.

   Who could have imagined his future?

For he was cut off from the land of the living,

   stricken for the transgression of my people. 

⁹ They made his grave with the wicked

   and his tomb with the rich,

although he had done no violence,

   and there was no deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53)

Now, reread these verses again:

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 

³ He was despised and rejected by others;

   a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces

   he was despised, and we held him of no account.

As you moved through this day it might be good to think about this ironic truth.

A truth that Jesus experienced as he lived on this earth trying, with all that was in him, to bring Gods love.

And yet,   he was despised, and we held him of no account.

And I once again have to wonder: were we also there when they crucified my LORD?

Is this world today still guilty of the Good Friday event?

Jesus' Last Lesson

I have been working on the Second Reading from Passion Sunday, Philippine 2, for the past few mornings.  However, today it Maundy Thursday and, my mind is on the greatest love story in the Bible — in my opinion that is — John 13: 1-35.

One of my very first sermon on Maundy Thursday was titled: ‘The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.’

Yet though the years that reading, from John, has become to me a precious summary of What Jesus came to teach the world since his birth.

It was his last time to be together with his closest followers.

It was a time of urgency.  He needed to make his final plea — the most critical point was to be made.

He needed to impress upon his friends how extremely important his call, his mission, his purpose, his reason for coming to earth in the first place. 

It was time to literally get toe to toe with them and actually show them — demonstrate to them — their call to follow him.

For any Jewish man or woman Jesus' actions would be very familiar.  This servant, who washed feet, was considered the lowest of the low household servants. 

So he got down on his knees — keeled before them like a common servant in  any Jewish home would do — and washed their dung dirty feet.

This was Peter’s understandably horrifying response:

⁸Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.

Then after he washed all of their feet, Jesus got up put on his robe and told them this: 

‘Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you…… ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

A completely pointed lesson.  

There can be no questions what Jesus' disciples, -- then and now -- are to be about doing.  And doing it all as  -- as -- Jesus modeled.

³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ ⁷Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ⁸Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ ⁹Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ ¹⁰Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’

12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. ¹⁸I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, “The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.” ¹⁹I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. ²⁰Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.’……..

³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

(John 13)